Sibling Rivalry
by insaneular
Summary: Alternate title: Shipping Rivalry. My pre-emptive salute to the A:TLOK shipwars. Let's just say I know what I'll be shipping.  a cracky oneshot: Mako tries to give Bolin love advice, but Bolin doesn't like what he hears.


A/N: This was written before the show came out, so obviously some details are wrong - Mako and Bolin's ages appear to be a bit off, as well as their personalities to some extent. But I stand by this interpretation. Because I think it would be hilarious.

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><p>Mako collapsed at the campsite, exhausted from the day of traveling. Bolin was ambling around the clearing, twiddling his thumbs or something, but Korra was nowhere to be seen. Obviously off causing some sort of trouble or another that would come back to bite them in the ass later on, but as always, there was nothing he could do to stop her.<p>

Since it was nearing sunset, he flicked a small spark at the pile of kindling he'd collected earlier, causing it to catch and grow into a nice campfire. Bolin stopped his aimless wandering and joined Mako next to the fire. Mako was able to see that the object Bolin had been fussing around with was a small wildflower.

"Dude. What's with the flower?"

Bolin glanced up, eyes widened, and then quickly looked back down at the ground. "Nothing."

Mako snorted. "Come on, spit it out. I can tell when you're lying."

"Shut up. I just found it here and picked it, okay?"

Mako smirked. "Is there a _special someone_ that you might be trying to impress?"

"No. Can we talk about something else?" Bolin replied, speaking unnaturally fast. "What do you think of this weather we've been having? Crazy, huh?"

"Who's the girl?"

"There is no girl!" Bolin growled, slamming his fist on the ground.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Who's the guy?" Mako asked cheekily, suppressing snickers.

"It's not a–" Bolin growled, clenching his fist and crushing the flower. "Aww, Mako, look what you made me do! Now I need to go find another..." He began crawling around the edges of the clearing, poking around in the grass for a similar flower.

"I thought you just _found it around here_."

Bolin sighed. "Yes, there's a girl, alright? Now shut up and help me find another flower."

Mako chuckled, "Idiot," under his breath and joined his brother on the ground. "So who is she?"

Bolin muttered, "You don't know her."

"That would _almost_ be a convincing lie if you actually knew any girls that I didn't."

"We're not always together. I could have met a girl some time and not told you."

"Bolin, the only time we're ever apart is when one of us needs to take a leak, and I'm going to venture a guess that you don't meet many girls while you're off doing that. I'll ask again: who is she?"

"Have I not already made it clear that I don't want to share that?"

"Why not? I'll help you woo her."

"That's exactly the problem," Bolin said, grunting as he reached under a bush to search more. "You always think you have to look out for me, but whenever you try to help, you invariably make things worse instead. I'll take my chances by myself, thanks."

Just then, Mako found another delicate purple flower behind a fallen tree trunk. Grinning, he plucked it from its place. "Oh Bolin," he called, and held up the flower as his brother turned. "If you tell me who the girl is, I'll give you this."

"Come on, Mako, just give it to me. It took ages to find the first one, too."

"Then you'll want to tell me quick," he said, creating a small flame with his opposite hand and holding it carefully below the flower. "Because things around a firebender tend to get burned."

"You're a real jerk, you know that?" Bolin groaned. "Fine. It's Korra, alright? Now give me the stupid flower."

Mako extinguished the flame and limply handed the flower to Bolin. Shaking his head lightly to recover from his daze, he said, "Really? Korra?"

"Yeah," Bolin said, sitting down next to the campfire once again. "She's awesome. I've been nervous about it for a while, but I think I'm finally gonna make a move."

Mako sat down as well, beginning to regain his composure. "I'm not so sure you should do that."

"What? A minute ago you were offering to 'help me woo her'."

"Well, I would, but I kinda get the feeling that she's into someone else, and I just don't want to see you get hurt."

Bolin stood up, balling his fists. "Who is it? I'll kick his ass! Then we'll see who she's into."

Mako glanced away. "I'm not going to tell you."

"What? You can't just leave me like this. I told you my thing, you tell me yours."

"Again, I don't want you to get hurt. There's no way you could take this guy in a fight."

"Come on! I'm not just a kid, Mako. I can fight my own battles. Who is it?"

"My lips are sealed."

Bolin paced around, muttering and growling. "I bet it's that guy we met in the last village we stopped in, huh? He was looking at her a little too long for my liking."

Mako sighed and waited for his brother to calm down.

"No! Maybe it's Tenzin? She probably looks up to him – ew no, that'd be weird, and he's got a wife and kids..."

"Bolin, just stop. Please."

"No... it couldn't be!" Bolin gasped. "She's got the hots for the moon spirit, doesn't she! I knew she seemed unusually happy after her first Spirit World journey! I'll teach that stupid floating space-rock to steal my girl!" He picked up a rock about the size of his head from the ground, hurled it with all his might into the air, and then with a thrust of his arm, used his earthbending to rocket it up into the sky.

"Nooo!" He wailed as the rock fell short of its intended target and crashed down into he trees a short distance away. "I can never compete with the moon. You're right after all, Mako." He collapsed to his knees and began beating his fists against the ground, causing the whole clearing to shake.

"Bolin, stop. You're embarrassing yourself. Hell, you're embarrassing me just watching you. If it means that much to you, I'll tell you, okay? Just promise not to flip out."

Bolin's head whipped up like a polar bear dog that had just caught the scent of a juicy treat. "Really?"

"Yeah, sure." Mako sighed. "Bolin, I'm pretty sure that Korra has feelings for_ me_."

"What?" Bolin screeched. "That's impossible! She doesn't like _you_."

"What would you know? Thirty seconds ago you thought she was madly in love with the moon spirit!"

"Well, I know that she doesn't like you, and if even I can see it, then it's obvious."

"Look, Korra likes mature guys. I think you're just a little too... childish for her."

"And you aren't? You're only eleven months older than I am!"

"I'm just more serious. You're too goofy. You're like a little kid, even if you are sixteen."

"Have I told you yet today that you're a jerk?"

"I think you have."

"Well, then I'm officially repeating myself."

"Good to know." Mako turned away.

"Hold on, Jerk. This conversation's not over."

"I think it is."

"No, it's not." Bolin scowled. "First of all, you lied – I could totally beat you in a no-holds barred fight."

"You just keep telling yourself that."

"Says the little twiggy boy. I'm twice your size."

"Okay, maybe you'd beat me if you sat on top of me, Chubby. Korra will be all over you, then."

"I'm not chubby! This is muscle! I'm four times as strong as you are! Come on, want to go right now? Let's arm wrestle!" Bolin hopped around from one foot to the other angrily.

"No thanks," Mako scoffed, waving Bolin away.

"You just know that you'll lose." Bolin paused. "Anyways, I had a second of all, didn't I? Oh yeah. Why can't you just tell Korra that you're not interested? You want to be that nice big brother you're always pretending to be, that's what you should do."

Mako scowled. "What if I'm _not_ not interested?"

Bolin's jaw dropped. "You're a jerk!"

"You're repeating yourself again."

"Only because it's true! How could you do this to me?"

"What? It's not like you have some sort of claim on her. I'm free to pursue her if I want."

"But you know that I like her! It's not fair!"

"Well, that's life, Bolin. Sometimes it's not fair."

"I liked her first!"

"Well I'm the one that she likes back, aren't I?" Mako said, smirking.

"I don't buy that even a little bit. You're such an arrogant prick, you think everyone's in love with you. I'll ask Korra myself, and we'll find out what she thinks then, won't we?" Bolin said triumphantly.

"What I think about what?" said Korra as she returned to the campsite, Pabu wrapped around her neck. "Hey, sorry for taking him without asking, Bolin, I just, um, needed him for something."

"That's okay, I didn't even notice he was gone. And you can borrow him whenever you want," Bolin said, his voice practically dripping with sugar. "What did you need him for, anyways?"

"I was just taking him out for a walk," Korra said, throwing her hands in the air, in mock innocence, "Is it my fault if he decided to take one of his hot, steamy poos in the hat of that guy who called me a 'stupid, good-for-nothing girl undeserving of all the hero worship you get' yesterday?"

"You're definitely deserving of all the worship, no matter what some old geezer says," Bolin said, his eyes filled with mush. Mako could hardly stand to watch him, but he couldn't look away. His only option was to make it clear that Bolin was not even a competitor in this game so he'd give up and quit embarrassing himself.

He casually shoved Bolin to the side and approached Korra, who was laying out her bedroll under one of the small earth-tents Bolin had set up earlier. "Man, I never knew how exhausting fire-ferret-poop-revenge could be. It really takes it out of you."

"Takes it out of _you_? Go tell that to Pabu," Mako said with a low chuckle and a sly grin. Korra smiled and flopped down on her blanket.

"It's tough, having all this responsibility, huh?" He began carefully, planning out his speech to slowly and stealthily excise any scrap of a chance Bolin may have had. "This revolt stuff... it's pretty serious. It definitely requires some maturity, right?"

"Yeah, it definitely does, isn't it great that all three of us are so mature?" interrupted Bolin. He was suddenly sitting on Korra's other side; Mako hadn't even heard him approach, which was quite a feat for the lumbering klutz.

"Yes, but you're still a kid. You don't understand the kind of responsibility Korra and I have, as _adults,"_ Mako hissed.

"You're only eleven months older and whenever strangers see us side by side, they assume I'm the older brother, so just shut your mouth!" Bolin retorted, losing any semblance of composure.

"See?" Mako whispered to Korra. "He's preoccupied with the smallest things. I guess it's nice that he can enjoy that childish view of the world while it lasts."

"Is something up, you guys?" Korra muttered. "Did you two get in a fight? Do I have to do some Avatar-style mediation here?"

"No! No," Bolin said quickly. "I mean, unless you want to. You can do whatever you want. I don't mind."

"Go away, Bolin. Korra obviously wants to be alone."

"Then why aren't you leaving?" Bolin countered.

"Alright, what's up?" Korra groaned. "Did somebody hurt somebody's feelings while I was gone?"

"Yes, but that's not the main issue," Bolin said.

"There's no issue," Mako growled, kicking his brother. All his plans were being wrecked. If he'd just had some alone time with Korra, he was sure he could seduce her. Stupid Bolin seemed determined to get in the way.

"Come on, guys, spill it."

It seemed to be a night for spilling secrets, and Bolin was the one to crack this time. "Which one of us do you like? I mean _like-like_?" he blurted out.

"Bolin, you _idiot_!"

"Now you're repeating yourself," Bolin said, sticking out his tongue. "But seriously. This is an important question."

"Oh man," Korra said. "That's what this is about?"

"Yes!" Bolin said eagerly. "If you'll just answer, then we can stop fighting and forget about it!" He moved in close and added, "And you and I will live out the greatest love story of the century! No, of all time!"

"For the record, if you pick me, you won't have to deal with... well, that," Mako said, gesturing vaguely at Bolin, who'd tucked the purple flower from before through his teeth and was grinning so widely it looked like his face was going to break.

"Who says I like one of you?" Korra said plainly.

And with that, they were brothers again, sharing the same pain. They exchanged a look of mortal embarrassment, exasperation, and well, a dash of heartbrokenness, before Korra continued, "Is there any reason I shouldn't like _both_ of you?"

Mako's jaw dropped lower than it ever had before, while Bolin scratched his head, simply dumbfounded. "Ladies, please. There's no need to fight over me. There's enough of Avatar Korra to go around."

She put her arms around both of their shoulders, and Mako's face flushed red with both embarrassment and the fact that _her arm_ was around _his shoulder_. Bolin seemed to be having a similar reaction, as he swallowed the flower in surprise before collapsing into a dreamy smile.

"Boys, I think this may be the beginning of something great," Korra sighed.

Bolin turned to him and whispered behind Korra's back, "Does she mean what I think she means?"

Mako hissed back, "I don't know, but I _told_ you she liked me."


End file.
